bbc.com – Continue reading the main story More from the Monitor What does it mean to be stateless? What do twerking and the Charleston have in common? The Magazine in full In old photos from the family album, Islam Karimov – the president of Uzbekistan and the country’s leader since Soviet times – sports expressions his countrymen will never have seen on his face before, writes Natalia Antelava. The man regarded by many as a brutal tyrant stands awkwardly in his black slippers, looking sheepish in the embrace of his favourite daughter, Gulnara.